1847 Emigration to New Brunswick from Sligo, Ireland

Re: 1847 Emigration to New Brunswick from Sligo, Ireland

The Mawhinney Family of Maces Bay and Chance Harbour - Robert, James, John and brother in law James Ellis - came to NB on the "Jane Booth" in 1831. They had been workers on one of the Gore Booth Estates and their way had been paid on the owner's brother's ship. They were well provided for and "Jane Booth" Mawhinney was born during the passage.

You wanted to know about the ships "Lady Sale" and "Hannah" from Sligo. They are mentioned in the attached report of deaths at the Quarantine Station in Saint John during the year 1847.

AN GORTA MOR

THE NAMES, AGES, PORT OF DEPARTURE IN IRELAND OF THOSE 549 WHO PERISHED IN QUARANTINE AT THE HOSPITAL ON PARTRIDGE ISLAND AND THE SHIP THEY ARRIVED ON DURING THE PERIOD 7TH MAY 1847 AND 1ST NOVEMBER 1847 BASED ON REPORTS OF THE HEALTH OFFICER FOR PARTRIDGE ISLAND, SAINT JOHN, TO THE GOVERNMENT EMIGRATION OFFICER FOR THE COLONY OF NEW BRUNSWICK IN SAINT JOHN AS REPORTED IN THE NEW BRUNSWICK COURIER, A NEWSPAPER OF PUBLIC RECORD PUBLISHED IN SAINT JOHN, NB AT THE TIME, AS COMPILED AND MADE AVAILABLE BY DANIEL F JOHNSON FROM THE RECORDS OF THAT NEWSPAPER IN AN ONLINE DATABASE ACCESSIBLE AT THE WEBSITE OF THE PROVINCIAL ARCHIVES OF NEW BRUNSWICK - http://archives.gnb.ca/APPS/NewspaperVitalStats/?L=ENThe Archives publishes these notices on all of the records shown hereunder:1. Disclaimer: The database is developed from the transcriptions of Daniel Johnson from original newspapers or microfilm copies and may contain typographical or transcription errors, or errors and inconsistencies in the newspaper text. As the Provincial Archives does not make changes to records in its holdings, changes will not be made to the database.2. The language of the text is the original used in the newspaper entry and as transcribed by Daniel F. Johnson. Records acquired by the Provincial Archives are not translated from the language in which they originate.The methodology employed to extract these records was to select the “Full Text Search” choice entering the words “Partridge Island” without the quotation marks, narrowing the search to the years 1846 – 1847 and setting the County to “Saint John”.The year 1847 was seen by many to be the peak year of massive Irish Emigration due to the Great Potato Famine known in Ireland as “the great hunger” or “an gorta mor” in Gaelic. Suffice it to say without apportioning blame that Ireland at that time was going through a period of economic and social dislocation which made emigration the most attractive option for many. These emigrants came to America with great hope for success in their future endeavours with Saint John, NB being one of the destinations. The colonial government, to protect their citizens, caused the immigrants to be inspected for disease before they could land in Saint John. This inspection was carried out at Partridge Island at the mouth of the Saint John River and the Saint John Harbour. The colonial government of NB maintained a Quarantine Station and Hospital on Partridge Island at the time. Sick immigrants were denied entry to the colony and hospitalized in quarantine on Partridge Island pending their recovery at which time they would be released to enter the colony. This was the accepted medical practice of that era. The lists of those who did not recover were given to the newspapers that they might publish same to notify such relatives or friends who were not otherwise contacted by the colonial authorities for in that time there were no telephones and the mail system was still rudimentary. Likely there were public places were the lists were routinely posted. What follows are the lists released by the government and made available to the Saint John paper “New Brunswick Courier”. Historian Daniel F Johnson extracted these newspaper items from the microfilms of the newspapers themselves – same being maintained by the Saint John Free Public Library and the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick.It should be noted that those who perished at the quarantine station were buried on Partridge Island. On 11 Oct 1927, a great 40 foot Celtic Cross erected on Partridge Island was dedicated to the memory of the Irish whose final resting place the island is.The writer has copied the entries into this document. In the year 1847, the writer’s ancestors George and Catherine Fawcett and her widowed mother and brother, Catherine and Charles Dempsey, were among the 15,000 who landed on Partridge Island from Ireland that year and were granted admittance to the Colony of New Brunswick.Harry MacDonaldChance Harbour, NBSaturday, January 22, 2011harrymac@gmail.com

Johnson 11:2629; September 25 1847; Saint John New Brunswick Courier -- Report of the Health Officer for Partridge Island (St. John) to the Government Emigration Officer in this city for the week ending yesterday. The following deaths have occurred since 17th inst:

Johnson 11:2837; November 20 1847; Saint John New Brunswick Courier -- Return of Emigrants who have died on Partridge Island (St.John) from 24th Sept. to 1st Nov. 1847, names of Vessels in which they arrived and ports from which they sailed.